Banana Bread French Toast

Over the holidays, my neighbor, Linda, shared with me that every Christmas Eve she cooks a big breakfast for her family.  One of the favorite menu items that she makes every year is a banana bread french toast.  First of all, those are two of my favorite things:  banana bread and french toast.  To find out that she had combined these two items was inspiring to say the least.

Now I normally prefer to come up with my own recipes or work from a basic recipe when trying new things, but as far as baking my own banana bread for a french toast, I figured I could cut some corners.  Fortunately, Betty Crocker sells a banana bread box mix that was on sale last week.  Unfortunately, I did not read the box recipe until I was home - it calls for mashed banana, and that's something I don't keep on hand.

Well I finally got my banana, and I baked the banana bread following the directions on the box yesterday. 

This morning I sliced it up and made it into French Toast.  It wasn't as firm as I would have hoped, but the taste was phenomenal.  Now for those Disney fans that have tried Tonga Toast over at the Polynesian, don't get your hopes up - this was no where near as good as that brick of delicious, cinnamon-sugar covered gold.  But it is something that I would definitely make again, especially if I was entertaining for breakfast.  I think the combination of a baked quick bread and a breakfast staple elevates both components nicely.  Plus I'm sure a sprinkling of powdered sugar would make it look much classier than how I enjoyed it this morning…

I'm sure everyone has their own recipe for French Toast, and I just worked from my classic recipe:  2/3 c milk, 4 eggs, 2 tsp cinnamon, pinch of ground sea salt, two pinches ground cloves.